D&H Games
£3.99 cassette
0462 816103
Reviewer: Rich Pelley

Football's an odd game, and amateur football players are even odder. Why, oh why, do they have such an urge to get out of their nice warm beds and go and stand in the middle of a cold field? I could understand it if they got vast amounts of money, but they don't. They just get bruised ankles and, if they're lucky, a Mattesons liver pate sandwich. It's one of life's great mysteries!

Having slagged D&H's re-released Cricket Captain off into oblivion elsewhere in this month's YS it looks here we go, here we go (again) with World Cup.

YOU COULDN'T MANAGE A HAM ROLL!

Technically speaking there is little to initially fluster about. Apart from its. Timing. That is. (Sorry - that was a crap version of an Alexei Sayle joke, but it didn't seem to work out quite so well on paper. Hem.) Everything that you'd expect to be able to do in a management game can be done. In other words the players are bought/sold, matches arranged and played, team tactics carefully considered, players trained and so on, with all options selected using exactly the method that you'd expect to be using in a management game, in other words via a whole load of lists.

Sounds a bit like Football Manager so far, doesn't it. And I think that this is no mere coincidence. World Cup is sadly an unashamed rip-off of Football Manager.

What more, the programmers are so cheeky that they haven't even tried to do anything different with it! in fact the only major playability differences that I could find were the of an option to speed up the (crap graphic-ed) animated match highlights and the fact that the proper names are used for each countries' team. Oh, and the welcomed lack of huge pauses in the original list is lost, thanks to the upgrade to machine code from BASIC. Hardly the kind of improvements that I'd have hoped for. Especially considering the fact that the programmers have had over ten years (yes ten!) since Football Manager was originally released on the Sinclar C5. Or whatever.

Having said that, even the best management games such as European Superleague and Footy Manager 2 which, presentation-wise, have at least moved on a stage or two, still seem to feel a little thin in the playability department. With the types of games around today, this begs the question - can full-on management games still actually stand up? Methinks, with a game this poor, 'tis highly unlikely. In fact, if I hadn't already used the 'whopping great steaming pile of poo' metaphor this issue, then I think it'd be particularly appropriate to conclude with it here as well.

Label: Cult
Memory: 48K/128K
Price: £3.99 Tape
Reviewer: Steve Keen

Arrgh! It's not even time for the European Championships and already we're being pestered with footie games. Well every game, even football related ones, deserve a chance. So let's see what this one has to offer!

World Cup is basically a football management sim but - don't let that put you off it. It benefits from having loads of menus that are all incredibly accessible from one load. You can flick between them instantaneously, avoiding the boredom and distraction of a lot of management games which have a multi-load format.

World Cup allows you to choose which team to lead and which World Cup group you want to play in. Additionally teams are fully re-created with genuine international player names which, in my opinion, is a big bonus. As the manager you may remove players who are not up to scratch, change names, select individual members to go into training and then actually train the whole team as you see fit! Furthermore you can swap positions and spy on other international sides to discover if their tactics include operating the sweeper system on defence or, like Big Al and Jack Charlton, going straight in, studs up at the kneecaps!

Absolutely every event and condition of managing, coaching and organising a football team is here, and I defy anyone to think of an option that's not. When everything's sorted it all boils down to the match though, and what happens when the big day arrives.

Each game is watched in a humourous Subbuteo mode. The pace can be speeded up or slowed down, and interaction is maintained by the ability to substitute players at any time. It's actually a lot more exciting than it sounds. Watching the ball rattle around the pitch from end to end and player to player is so exhausting I had to lie down for a few hours after my first game! Match commentary is displayed on screen with player names and the success or failure of each move is commented upon.

There really is so much here I've really only scratched the surface, suffice to say that this is a refreshing twist to the football management genre. The balance between strategy and action has been bridged, on budget at last.

ALAN:
Wow! It's so exciting it could have wet myself! Well almost. Remember this is a budget game so don't expect miracles, but to be quite honest it could put some full pricers to shame.